Fiorentini

In the Glossary of Sauces & Shapes (here), Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant describe fiorentini as a “short, squiggly factory-made pasta”. Based upon this brief description, one might not expect much from this noodle in the looks-department. Yet of all of the pastas featured in Sauces & Shapes, fiorentini rates, in my opinion, as one of the most handsome. It can also handle a broad range of sauces. Zanini De Vita and Fant pair the shape with a hearty ragù di carne. The Mozza Cookbook [2011] by Nancy Silverton with Matt Molina and Carolynn Carreño contains a recipe for fiorentini with a sauce of guanciale, tomato, and spicy pickled peppers.

Dry fiorentini rarely appears on grocers’ shelves here in the US, so if you want to try it, take to the web. As I write, Buon Italia (here) sells the shape. Emiliomiti (here) sells a bronze die for the torchio that produces twisting ribbons that look like fiorentiti to my eye. Ask for die 267 from the Blue Catalog.

I’ve made a lot of extruded pasta, including fiorentini, over the past few months. During this period, I used a 50-50 mixture of Central Milling Organic Type 00 flour and Giusto Extra Fancy Durum flour. I am experimenting with adding a touch more liquid to the flour. In the past, I used 75 grams of an egg mixture (typically a whole medium egg plus a medium egg yolk) for 150 grams of flour. (This produces enough pasta to serve 2 as a main course.) Of late, I’ve increased the amount of eggs for this flour blend from 75 to 77 grams. You need to make allowances for how your ingredients interact on any given day, but I have found that these extra grams of liquid produce a better-shaped noodle.

The other practice I now employ: after mixing the dough in a standing mixer with a paddle, I form the dough into a log rather than a disk. After an hour hydration period at room temperature, I simply pop the dough right into the torchio and start cranking.

Bourbon Milk Punch

Let’s finish off the year with a glass full of holiday cheer. I wrote (here) that 2013 offered a score of outstanding cookbooks. A number of my favorites preached the gospel of new Southern cooking, including Edward Lee’s Smoke & Pickles and John Currence’s Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey. Buy both of these books, and you get a double helping of pickles.

You will also get some outstanding cocktail recipes, especially for bourbon fans. Lee serves up Jalapeño-Spiked Bourbon Julep, Bourbon Sweet Tea, The Rebel Yell and The New-Fashioned. Currence likes his brown water as well; he shares recipes for New Old-Fashioned, Spiced Cider and, the star of this post, Bourbon Milk Punch.

Currence writes “[u]nbeknownst to most folks, Bourbon Milk Punch (or Brandy Milk Punch, depending on who’s making it) is the choice beverage of the gentlemen who work the floats on Mardi Gras day on St. Charles Avenue and ply the masses with plastic beads and aluminum doubloons.” While often served during Mardi Gras, Milk Punch is no stranger to Christmas gatherings. So let’s make some! Currence’s recipe serves 1.

4 ounces whole milk

2 tablespoons half-and-half

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2½ ounces Buffalo Trace bourbon

4 teaspoons confectioners’ sugar

Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish

Pour the milk, half-and-half, vanilla, and bourbon over cracked ice in a cocktail shaker. Spoon in the sugar, and shake vigorously. Pour into a large old-fashioned glass, sprinkle nutmeg over the top, and serve.

As 2013 comes to a close, I wish happiness and good health to all in the New Year!

Best Cookbooks of 2013

What a year for cookbooks! I struggled to whittle my favorites down to a list of just five books. My Best of 2013 contains both eagerly awaited offerings and serendipitous discoveries. In alphabetical order, I offer up my choices for the top five cookbooks of the year.

I Love New York: Ingredients and recipes by David Humm and Will Guidara. Ten Speed Press.

Ivan Ramen: Love, obsession, and recipes from Toyko’s most unlikely noodle joint by Ivan Orkin. Ten Speed Press.

Pizza: Seasonal recipes from Rome’s legendary Pizzarium by Gabriele Bonci with Elisia Menduni; translated by Natalie Danford. Rizzoli International Publications.

Roberta’s Cookbook by Carlo Mirarchi, Brandon Hoy, Chris Parachini and Katherine Wheelock. Clarkson Potter/Publications.

Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian way by Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

So, why did I pick these books?

In I Love New York, Humm and Guidara explore the idea of a regional New York cuisine by showcasing the state’s farmers, fishermen, ranchers and craft food purveyors. The authors organize their book alphabetically by ingredient with each foodstuff section featuring a different New York State food artisan and dishes built around the ingredient. Fabulous recipes beautifully presented make this outstanding book from the chef and general manager of Eleven Madison Park one of the best cookbooks of recent memory.

For years I searched for a decent ramen recipe, especially information—any information—on making fresh ramen noodles. Nothing!  Then came David Chang’s Momofuku [2009], the first cookbook I found that seriously explores the different components that make up a great bowl of ramen. Now we have a worthy ramen-centric successor to Momofuku, Orkin’s Ivan Ramen. Talk about an amazing (and, as the book’s subtitle states, unlikely) story: New York-born kid travels to Japan and, long story short, opens up a wildly successful ramen shop by applying his stateside-taught culinary skills to his beloved Japanese noodle soup. And talk about generous! I now quote from page 96 of Ivan Ramen: “So this book includes the entire recipe for Ivan Ramen shio ramen, exactly as it’s made at the shop in Rokakoen.” What a rarity: a ramen chef that shares his techniques and secrets with all! But perhaps the best part of Ivan Ramen lies in Orkin’s story of loss and purpose. Orkin has penned a great read, whether you love noodles or not.

What Ivan Ramen is to shio ramen, Pizza by Gabriele Bonci is to Roman-style pizza. Here’s another example of a successful, micro-focused chef sharing his beloved craft. Bonci classically trained as an Italian chef, but decided to apply his cooking skills to his passion, baking. Bonci makes Roman-style pizzas—think long, rectangular pies—that he slices up and sells out of his tiny pizzeria in Rome. Although Neapolitan-style pizza needs a very hot oven temperature that is difficult to approximate at home, Bonci’s Roman-style pizza works great in a home oven set to 475°F. If you buy Bonci’s book, make sure you watch Elizabeth Minchilli’s YouTube video entitled Pizza Dough with Bonci – January 20, 2011 Rome (here). This video makes the process of shaping Roman-style pizza clear and easy.

And speaking of pizza, the folks behind Roberta’s in Brooklyn wanted to open a small pizza place, but they had almost zero money and the same amount of restaurant experience. How can you not love a book that contains the following sentence: “We arrived in the northern Italian town of Fossano early on a summer afternoon, a journey we’d made because we were about to open a pizzeria and—small detail—we’d never actually made pizza before.” All’s well that ends well: Roberta’s the restaurant succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and now we have the playful Roberta’s Cookbook. The book covers more than just pizza; you’ll find an array of simple recipes—most feel Italian in spirit—that focus on dishes that contain only a few carefully chosen ingredients. Highly recommended.

Last, and by no means least, I encourage everyone to buy Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant’s outstanding Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian way. I wrote about this cookbook last month (here). Sauces & Shapes was my most eagerly anticipated 2013 cookbook, and it lived up to my high expectations. It gets my vote as the best Italian cookbook of the year.

Here’s hoping that 2014 turns out as many excellent cookbooks as 2013!